Cat Scratch Fever
by Hutch-is-gorgeous
Summary: Note that all chapters are posted at once. I wasn't planning on writing a Van abuses Hutch story, but the topic came up on a Starsky and Hutch Facebook group.


Thank you Sparkle7311 for beta reading this story. Any mistakes are unintentionally mine.

I wasn't planning on writing a Van abuses Hutch story, but then the topic was brought up on a Starsky and Hutch Facebook group. Some people feel that because Van tries to slap Hutch in the episode "Hutchinson for Murder One" that during their marriage she was abusive. I think it could be a possibility, but how abusive was she? In this story I have her being very abusive. Did I go overboard? Opinions and reviews are welcome.

** Cat Scratch Fever**

**Chapter One**

Hutch, at first, allowed the abuse-

Vanessa got off the bed and stood next to it, "Onto your stomach now!" she ordered her husband.

Obeying her Hutch lay face down on the bed. As he did her hands pressed down on the back of his head forcing his face into the pillow with a lavender pillowcase. Lavender was associated with tranquility, there was none of that as his nostrils and mouth were being deprived of oxygen, and time passed.

Hutch couldn't help but squirm his lean and muscular body at being suffocated. Yes. Suffocated. And seeing white bright dots dancing behind his closed eyelids and feeling dizzy…. Felt like he might pass out and his lungs continued to be deprived of oxygen, she finally let loose of him.

"Keep your eyes closed," she ordered him, when he heard her stomp across the room. Disobeying her for the first time since early in their marriage, Hutch sat up and said, "That's it, Van. No more of these sadistic games. They're over!

To his surprise, Van smiled sweetly and said, "Okay if that's what you want dear."

####

Two years later Hutch was only partially dressed when his brunette wife walked up to him and planted a kiss on his bare chest. Then, something he wasn't expecting happened.

She raked her long and painted red fingernails down his abdomen, drawing blood!

"Hey! What did you do that for?"

"Oh Ken. It's because I'm your wife and I can!" she said with a thin smile, not sounding at all like the woman he had married over three years ago.

He didn't have time to go clean the wound with cotton balls and rubbing alcohol. Pulling a white t-shirt over his head, he slipped on a blue and patriotic shirt with an embroidered bald eagle and an American flag on the back. Outside, he heard Starsky honk his car horn announcing his arrival to pick him up for work.

###

After their 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift was over, Starsky was going to drive Hutch to the gym. The curly-headed brunet never worked out with Hutch. He spent his time in the gym café chatting with Barney, the owner of the café, about topics ranging from the Nascar races to why oranges were orange, while Hutch did his workout. That meant Starsky wouldn't be following Hutch into the men's locker room while he changed into his gym clothes so he wouldn't see the scratch marks on Hutch's abdomen and question him about them.

###

Hutch didn't always eat healthy foods, two days went by and sitting at Van and his apartment's kitchen table, he helped himself to more vinegar and salt potato chips and another ham sandwich with Thousand Island dressing on both slices of bread.

He liked his alcoholic beverages cold, just as he took a sip of his beer and swallowed it, Van walked up to him and slapped him hard in the face.

"Hey! Why did you do that for!?" he exclaimed, rubbing his smarting right cheek.

"I told you. It's because I'm your wife and I can," she said coldly, pinching his other cheek between her strong fingers, giving the cheek a tug before letting go.

####

A few nights later Van and Hutch were up the coast at Pristine Lake to do some overnight camping. She was telling him about a diamond and emerald ring she wanted him to buy her at Francine's. He immediately recognized the name as the store about four miles away from Parker Center and Starsky and he worked out of.

Francine's only sold expensive things. Extremely expensive! And wondering to himself how he would afford the jewelry, especially on his salary, he wasn't paying any attention to Van placing her thumb and middle finger around his right wrist.

Still worried about how he would purchase her the ring, he nibbled his lower lip. With a sinister smile, Van moved his wrist over the cast iron frying pan he had heating up over the camping stove in preparation to fry up some steaks.

Suddenly Hutch felt her slide her thumb and finger up his forearm. She pressed down hard on it causing his open right hand to go into the frying pan and burning his palm.

Jerking his hand out of the pan and hissing at the pain, he doubled over, cradling his arm to his stomach.

Van leaned in close and whispered in his ear as he whimpered in pain, "How come I did that? Because I'm your wife and I can! Don't you ever forget that!"

###

The next morning Hutch drove himself to work in his dark brown Chevy Impala, and Starsky had also driven himself to work but in his black Ford convertible.

###

When Starsky walked into the squad room on the third floor, Hutch couldn't hide he had gauze wrapped around his right hand and held in place with medical adhesive tape.

"How you hurt your hand?" Starsky asked, sounding concerned, but not so much it could be considered smothering. Because of it, Hutch ignored the question and at their shared desk began working on a report he needed to finish before they hit the streets.

**Chapter Two**

Saliva naturally slipped into a drink even when you only took 'one' sip, it was well-known that Starsky and Hutch were picky, very picky, with whom they shared a drink with…

Starsky sauntered across the squad room to get a cup of coffee to split between them.

It was only when Hutch didn't think Starsky was looking that the blond detective tightened the muscles in his face, grimacing in pain. It was obvious to the curly-headed brunet that his partner and best friend was hurting, Starsky put down the coffeepot and walked over to stand next to Hutch.

"I said how you hurt your hand?"

Hutch hated lying to Starsk and to ease his guilty conscious some, he decided to tell part of the truth. "Van and I were at Pristine Lake last night to do some overnight camping. I bent over to get something, bumped into a tree and when I went to steady myself with the picnic table I accidentally stuck my hand in the frying pan heating up on the stove.

"Ouch!" Starsky sympathized, then curious to see Hutch's hand, "Let me take a look at it."

"I'm fine, Starsk. Really."

"Oh quit your yapping," he lightly scolded, carefully removing the tape and gauze on the injured hand.

The blisters on Hutch's palm looked awfully painful and Starsky wanted Hutch to talk to him after all.

"Didn't you put any burn cream on your hand?" Starsky demanded but Hutch refused to talk. "Come on, answer me, buddy," Starsky pleaded until Hutch finally opened up to him with something that was the entire truth.

"Van and I didn't think to take the first aid kit with us to the lake, and all the stores around there we went to didn't have any. Really my hand's no big deal."

"I disagree! I'm taking ya to a store to get some cream and more gauze and tape. But first I have to go tell our Captain Reynolds we'll be back in 20 minutes."

###

Inside Starsky's convertible and with the top down first they talked about how one day Dobey might be their captain, when, "Hey Blondie, tell me how you got the nickname Hutch."

Hutch reached out to turn the radio to a different station, "I've told you a million times already."

"So, tell me again."

"Hey, I think this country song is new. Haven't heard it before," Hutch remarked. Distracted for a moment before telling Starsky the old familiar story about his nickname. "My mom told me that up until I was three and a half years old, I couldn't say 'Hutchinson' so said 'Hutch' instead."

"I do like that story! Can just picture you as a little guy, but Hutch is all grown up now. What are you going to do if you have to use your gun with your burned right hand all wrapped in gauze and tape?

"Shouldn't be a problem. I'm ambidextrous. Haven't you noticed that before now?" Hutch asked with a smile.

"That 'ambidextrous' word means you can use your left hand as well as you can use your right one. Right? That's good! And come to think of it, I've noticed that about you before. And hey! Do you know how we sometimes call a radio a radidio? I do like this song that's now playing. Glad you switched to this station. I didn't care for the last singer on that other one. The guy's voice was too nasally. Sounded like he should go blow his nose!"

Hutch agreed with what Starsky said about the singer, but needing to soothe his guilty conscience some more for telling Starsky a partial fib about how he'd burned his hand Hutch wasn't lying at all when he told Starsky, "I should take you berry picking before the season ends. I know a place that has some really big suckers!"

###

Two more days went by and Hutch and his wife were in bed, reading.

Van grew tired of her women's magazine. She put it on her lap and reached over to take Hutch's book about ships and the sea out of his hands.

"Sweetheart I wasn't quite finished with that," he told her. He hadn't said it snappishly and even if he had, he was taken by complete surprise when she bent her left elbow and slammed it into his right eye.

"Ow!" he yelled, slapping his not burned left hand over this most recent injury. "What did you do that for?" he asked her.

"Oh Ken. You must've forgotten! Shame on you! I hurt you because I'm your wife and I can!"

###

The next morning when Starsky saw him at work, he whistled at Hutch's black eye, then wanted to know how he got the big shiner.

On the way to the ammunition supply room, Starsky was following so close behind Hutch- "I said how did you get that big shiner?" Starsky repeated.

Hutch's right eye was throbbing and watering big time again, and all he really wanted was some space between him and Starsky and left to his troubled thoughts.

But seeing that Starsky would not give him that space unless he answered him, Hutch came up with another lie to tell him. "I went to the beach last night. This drunk was harassing a hooker, and before I could get the handcuffs on him, he elbowed me in the eye. I pinned him to a brick wall, took him to the jail a few blocks away from Van's and my apartment. End of story."

###

Three weeks later Hutch and Van were in their apartment's art room and Van was holding a sewing machine needle in her right hand. She didn't sew, at first she was planning on using the needle to hang a framed picture on one of the walls.

"Forgot the hammer lover," she purred into Hutch's ear while wrapping her arms around his waist so he couldn't see the needle.

Without any warning, she suddenly jammed the needle into the back of his left thigh, and unfortunately for him, it was in a spot that wasn't covered with the thick blue jean shorts he was wearing.

Hutch grunted hard due to the severe pain from the needle implanted in his thigh and glared at her as he twisted around so he could pull the needle out.

Van batted her eyes at him and said sweetly, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to do that. Please forgive me." Even as she begged her husband for forgiveness, Van laughed to herself at how easy it was to fool him into believing her.

Hutch had two days off work and wouldn't be seeing Starsky, and Starsky wouldn't be seeing the puncture wound in his thigh-

The following week Hutch received a package in the mail from a first cousin who lived in Vermont. Hutch sat on the couch and opened the package. Carefully, he took out a lighthouse that was sculptured from heavy glass. "This is nice! Very nice! Here Van!" She was sitting next to him so he handed it to her so she could get a better look at it.

Done admiring it Van said, "I need you to see why Channel Four on the TV's not coming in." Secretly she knew that the channel was coming in just fine. Van took pleasure—great pleasure in the thought that she was going to hurt him again…

As they were walking to the entertainment center the TV was on, she stopped and because she did, he stopped too.

That's when she intentionally let go of the lighthouse in her hands and it landed right where she wanted it to—on top of Hutch's bare left foot!

He let loose a sharp yelp and hopped up and down on the other foot over to a white wicker chair with a comfortable blue cushion and sat down…

She was nonchalantly brushing her long hair and happily humming a tune they both knew when five minutes later she picked up her purse and car keys and left their apartment. And without having the common courtesy to at least offer to drive him to the hospital to have his right foot medically attended to.

###

She was a few miles away from their apartment and had just stepped out of her parked Corvette when she spotted her girlfriend Binita standing on the patio of an outdoor flower shop.

Running up to Binita, they chatted a bit about the nice weather and how good the flowers smelled when the shorter woman asked Van what she'd been up to lately.

"Been abusing my husband! That's what!" Vanessa squealed in delight.

"Oh how fun!" Binita cried out and then they both laughed.

They each ordered a vase of roses and continued talking. Then as she prepared to leave the store, Vanessa said, "So my criminal defense attorney friend, I need the phone number for that one male chemist you kept from going to prison on a 1st-degree assault and battery charge and owes you a big favor. Because I have another idea on how to hurt my dear hubby."

"You're really enjoying this. Aren't you?" Binita said with a laugh.

"Of course, and Ken just puts up with it because he doesn't want any of his macho friends to know what he lets me do. And it's a kick telling him that I'm abusing him because I'm his wife and I can."

"Just remember he's still a cop so don't go too far. You still can be charged with assault if he ever decides to press charges."

"He's not going to do anything like that," Vanessa said confidently as she strolled away.

###

Back at Hutch's and Vanessa's apartment-

Hutch's right foot still needed professional medical attention, he had located a pair of socks and slip on shoes and had put them on, but it took another fifteen minutes before he found his wallet with his driver's license, his insurance card, and forty dollars in cash inside.

_The wallet strangely not where he habitually put it and he wondered out loud if Van had purposely hidden it on him._

He left the apartment and climbed into his car, but when he turned the key in the ignition, nothing happened. Nothing at all. To his dismay when he glanced down he realized that last night he hadn't flipped the headlight switch off all the way and had drained the car's battery.

Cussing about the aching in his right foot not letting up at all, and limping heavily back across the parking lot, he slowly made his way up the five flights of stairs attached to the outside of the apartment building. And opening the door to his apartment, he had no choice but to go inside and phone Starsky.

Call him and tell him the truth that his car battery was as dead as a doornail and that he needed him to take him to Walmart to get it charged and then take him to the ER.

He knew that Starsky would demand to know why he needed to go to the ER. Hutch would lie again and tell him he was holding the lighthouse and accidentally dropped it on his bare foot. If Starsky asked how he managed to drop it he would say, "Must've still had some avocado oil on my hands and the lighthouse slipped out of them.

**Chapter Three**

Huggy Bear worked full-time at a bar and grill that was open all day and all night. Someday he hoped to own the place and not just be a janitor. He knew that the owner, Don, planned on retiring soon and was looking to sell the place.

To get enough money to buy it, he needed to earn some extra money. So besides working at the bar and grill he was also working part-time at a place the California Department of Tourism boasted in a tourism magazine as having the best homemade ice cream in Bay City. They even had a special offer for shakes with whipped cream and a cherry on top for only $1.75 with tax.

As usual, there was the mid-afternoon lull in business, Huggy's co-workers were in a back room taking a break while Huggy stayed out front to wait on any customers that should happen to walk in.

"Well lookie here! It's the Starsk man and the Nordic prince Hutch." He nodded his head at the petite woman standing beside him with a grin and added, "Starsky and the prince who ain't really a prince, this here's my real Granny- Alabammy Brown."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am." the two detectives said at the same time.

The woman was in her mid-sixties with neatly styled white hair and lively brown eyes. She stared dreamily at Hutch and said, "I don't care if you're a prince or not, you sure are a pretty thing! Um hum, um hum, um hum, hubba hubba! -"

Embarrassed by the attention, Hutch swallowed hard and then coughed.

Grandma Brown laughed and said apologetically, "Hey, I didn't mean to embarrass you and make you choke on your own spit! But I calls its as I sees it and I still sees a man with a mighty fine face, gorgeous blond hair, a nice strong neck like a horse's and I bet you sing real good too!"

Starsky throatily chuckled then said, "Hey, I'm not chopped liver in the looks department and there's a part of him that ain't worth a hoot swoonin' over cuz he has one ugly left foot!"

"Oh? Tell me more," she said.

"Okay. On the top of his foot is a bruise bigger than a golf ball and plus, the doc had to take off the toenail and put stitches in the nailbed."

"You poor baby!" she said to Hutch. "You want me to kiss it and make it all better?"

Huggy decided it was time to cut in before his grandmother embarrassed Hutch any further. "I love you Grams but the clock on the wall says it's time for you to scram for a bit!" He turned his attention back to his two policemen friends. "So what will it be gentlemen? A pineapple shake with pieces of real fruit in it for Hutch, and a chocolate shake for you Starsky?" He grinned at Hutch. "I'm buying the injured one's shake."

The two cops finished their shakes and were almost out the exit door when Huggy hollered, "One dollar and seventy-five cents is one dollar and seventy- five cents! Starsky get back here and pay for your shake!"

**Chapter Four**

It was almost six-thirty at night when Van took out of the refrigerator a bottle of balsamic vinegar, a see-through plastic bowl of romaine lettuce, some spinach leaves, sliced tomatoes and green peppers, and chunks of grilled chicken.

Hutch, who was sitting at the kitchen table, eyed her wearily and said, "Hon, I'm sorry, but I'm not hungry."

Van frowned as if she were annoyed as she put the ingredients back. But she knew he wouldn't pass up drinking her pomegranate iced tea and brewed just the strength he liked it. She took out the pitcher and poured him a full glass.

As she expected, he drank all of it and it didn't take long before he wrapped his arms around his severely cramping stomach and rocked himself back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Finally, he fell off the chair and onto the floor and curled up in a fetal position still in excruciating pain and panted heavily.

So overwrought with the agony that his entire body shook, Hutch pleaded with his wife, "Do something. Help me."

"No! I'm enjoying myself watching you suffer!"

"Va…Van… plea….please!" he gasped.

"Va…Van….plea….please!" she ridiculed him by imitating the stutter he had when he was stressed or in pain.

Then seeing beads of perspiration covering his face, and the way his t-shirt was so wet it was plastered to his skin, Van's heart softened a little.

"Don't worry, the chemist that made the poison I put in the tea said it wouldn't kill you and the cramps would only last fifteen minutes and no more."

But with the way Hutch was hurting those fifteen minutes may as well have been twelve hours. When the cramps finally stopped, he simply lay on the kitchen floor for almost ten minutes too exhausted to move. Vanessa ignored him as she casually fixed herself a sandwich and sat down at the table to eat it.

###

It was eleven o'clock in the morning when Hutch met up with Starsky in the seating area of an indoor theater for a special viewing of a new western movie featuring an actor they knew.

Starsky was still standing, "Here's your box of unbuttered popcorn," he said as he lightly tapped the box on the blonds' shoulder. When Hutch jumped up out of his chair, the popcorn flying everywhere!

"Whoa there Nellie, I mean Nell being as you're not a girl. Settle theeselves down boy!" Starsky remarked like he was a cowboy in the movie.

Hutch then took in a big inhalation of air then blew it out.

"I'm okay now," he assured Starsky.

"No. No. You're not okay. You're still trembling," When they noticed other people walking down the stairs and into the seating area, the two cops sat down. Starsky whispered into Hutch's ear, "You mind telling me what's gotten into you this morning?"

"Had a bunch of bad nightmares last night, but don't worry about it and besides that look at the theater screen."

SILENCE IS GOLDEN. ENJOY the MOVIE.

The truth was that last night Hutch had a lot of nightmares and all of them involved his wife abusing him in one way or another. But the movie was so great he put last night completely out of his mind.

####

Two whole weeks went by and during that time, Van was as sweet and loving as could be. Hutch was standing in the living room without a shirt on, his back towards Van who was standing behind him. As he was picking up the newspaper off the cherry wood coffee table, he didn't see her throw their Calico kitten named Callie at him.

Sure did feel the kitten as it dug all of its claws into his bare back and felt its teeth sink into him as the frightened animal tried to find something to hold on to. And he hissed in pain, feeling sorry for himself and the poor cat too, and had run away and was hiding underneath the couch.

He turned around to give Vanessa a royal chewing out. Not that he figured it would do any good, but he didn't see her anywhere. The front door was standing open so Hutch assumed she must have left the apartment.

Ignoring the open door, Hutch walked into the bathroom to doctor his wounds the best he could.

###

"Hutch. Hey, Hutch! Where are you?" he heard Starsky yell. "Did you know you left your door open? Come here. I got something I want you to hold. It's called a mood rock. When you hold it the color it turns tells ya what kind of mood you're in."

"Go away, Starsk. Just go away!"

"Wow! You sure are in a bad mood and ya don't even have to hold the rock to tell me that!" Starsky hollered back.

As he crossed the room and entered Hutch's bedroom, Starsky caught the reflection of Hutch's bare back in the bathroom mirror through the open door. He saw several tiny puncture wounds with blood seeping out of them. On the sink he saw some cotton balls and an open bottle of rubbing alcohol, Starsky stood in the bathroom doorway completely stunned and stared at his partner with a frown on his face.

Hutch looked at him and lied again, "Ahh. Um. Um. Well… the kid in the apartment next door blew his tuba extra loud and scared Callie and she attacked me."

"I'm taking you to the ER."

"I'm not going!" Hutch insisted defiantly.

"Yes, you are!" Starsky insisted firmly.

"Ain't!"

"Are too!" Starsky countered as he carefully cleaned the wounds on Hutch's back.

"Are not!"

And that's when Starsky snapped his fingers and said, "I think the reason you're being so stubborn about going to the hospital is that the kid didn't blow his tuba at all. I think…..I think….I think…..someone else made the cat attack you. Van ?"

"No."

"You're full of a hill of beans and you know it. I think Vanessa has been abusing you. There isn't any other explanation as to why you've been getting so many injuries lately. Some I likely don't even know about."

Hutch deflated and hung his head in shame that he was being abused by his wife when he was a man and cop at that. Also hanging his head in shame that he'd been fibbing to Starsky when he tried to cover up the abuse.

"Hey," Starsky said gently, using the tip of his index finger to lift Hutch's chin off his chest. "Nothing to be ashamed about. I say you let me finish doctoring your wounds then you go put on a t-shirt and we go find the lady and arrest her."

"That isn't a good idea, Starsk. I'm not ashamed anymore about being abused by my wife, but Krandall and Krammer in Internal Affairs will read our arrest report, and they'll laugh at me."

"So, let them laugh. Now let's go find the lady."

They walked out of the apartment's front door and closed it.

"Stop," Hutch said. "I just thought of something. Even if we arrest Van her criminal defense attorney friend Binita will have her out of jail before we can say one, two, three."

Starsky could see it in Hutch's cornflower blue eyes that he knew what he was talking about, "Okay. Here's the plan. You go back inside and pack a suitcase with some clothes, your toothbrush, and a shaving kit, and then take a cab to my house. You don't need to be driving with your back the way it is. I'll follow you in my car then make a detour at 41st and Swank Avenue and talk to a man at a BBQ joint who might know what to do about Van. Don't worry. I won't mention your name to him."

###

At the BBQ joint

"Sorry Mister Starsky, but I don't know what to do about Vanessa…that is unless you know someone who would give you 30 thousand dollars to hand to the witch as in The Wicked Witch of the West! And tell her the money is for moving far, far, far, far away from California."

Starsky shook his head sorrowfully. He didn't know anyone who would give him such a large amount of cash. Then he remembered something. The last time he was in New York visiting his mom, brother and some other relatives, he also had driven upstate and went to Cooperstown to go to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

He'd stopped in a small town's only grocery store to get a Coke and ended up joining the search to find the missing daughter of a rich man named Thomas Benton. The child was only six years old and had wandered off to God only knew where.

The Bay City detective had been the one to find her in the woods. The child had been crying and clung to his neck tightly as he carried her back to the safety of her father's arms. Benton invited him to his mansion for lunch. After they had eaten, he had opened a safe and tried to give Starsky 30 grand as a reward for finding his little girl. But Starsky had told him that he couldn't take it. He was just happy he'd found the child alive and well.

When Benton still insisted he take the cash, Starsky shook his head and replied, "I really can't even if I wanted to. Cops aren't allowed to take money for doing their job."

On the other hand, his loyalties were to Hutch. Protecting him from Vanessa and to keep her from ever abusing him again, Starsky excused himself and left the BBQ joint to find a pay phone.

Getting Benton's phone number from a female directory assistance operator, he told the wealthy man on the other end of the phone line that something had come up that allowed him to take the 30 thousand dollars, and to please wire it into his Bay City bank account.

After Starsky got the money out of his bank, he phoned Hutch's and Van's apartment. He hung up when she said, "Hello," he hoped and like he'd never hoped before that when he got there that she would still be there.

Thankfully she was clearly surprised when she opened the door and saw him. It was no secret that neither one of them cared for the other.

"Here, Van," Starsky said placing the sealed envelope in her hands. "Here's thirty thou for you to pack your clothes and whatever else you need to move out of the country as in today!"

"Ah. So I see you've found out I've been abusing Ken," she said smugly with a nasty laugh. "Okay, for that amount of money I'll leave!

Her contemptuous laughter followed Starsky as he left the apartment.

###

Starsky wasn't home yet when the phone in his living room rang, and rang, and rang. Hutch was in the bathroom brushing his teeth with the water running. When he finished and turned off the faucet, he finally heard the ringing.

He ran to answer it before the caller hung up.

"Hutchinson speaking."

"Ken. This is Van. I figured that I would find you there. I have something to tell you. I'm sorry for abusing you and I'm so sorry but I'm flying out of the country to go live in…" She paused and several seconds passed before Hutch realized she wasn't going to finish her sentence.

"Go live in where?"

"Ah, ah, ah, ah, honey. I won't give you the name of the city I'm going to or where I got the money from to do it."

"But I still love you. Please don't leave. We'll figure something out."

"Too late. The plane's boarding. Gotta go." Then she hung up.

Hutch felt lost, so lost, and wandering aimlessly throughout the house he heard someone open Starsky's front door. Sensing that it was Starsky and turning around to look at him, he commented that, "Van's on a plane and flying out of the country to go live in someplace. She wouldn't tell me where. I told her I still loved her and please don't go, we'd figure something out but she….she…she.. hung up the phone on me. Please, please hold me Starsk. Hold me."

"You don't have to beg babe." Starsky didn't bother closing the apartment door and wrapping his arms around his partner and best friend- and hearing him crying his eyes out- was breaking Starsky's heart.

It was still better than Hutch being with Van and continuing to be abused.

####

Later that night and time to go to sleep in the bed big enough for the two of them, Hutch pulled off his black jeans. Keeping on his boxer shorts, he took off his dark green t-shirt, Starsky then pointing an index finger at his bare back.

"I bet those puncture wounds are hurting again."

"No kidding Sherlock."

"Okay. The question is just _how much_ are they hurting? Um, don't answer that cause I can tell just by lookin at them that they hurt a lot. Let me get you some extra strength aspirin and another glass of water."

When Starsky returned he also had with him some cotton balls and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

"Where's the bottle of rubbing alcohol?"

"I used the last of it when I cleaned the wounds on your back five hours ago. Don't you remember?"

"No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. Boy am I tired, but no peroxide. I don't like it for cleaning any kind of wound.

"Yeah. How come?"

Hutch wasn't fooling that he was tired, it took a bit to get his brain to work to come up with the answer.

"Was mid-July and a Norwegian festival with singers, bands, food and games including children's ones like Gjemsel which is basically hide-and-seek was taking place in Shakopee, Minnesota about 3 hours from Duluth.

"Dad was driving his slate gray station wagon, my mom in the front passenger seat, and my sister and me in the backseat.

"Dad turned a corner too wide and fast trying to miss a pothole and my door sprung open. When I tried to close it, I fell out rolling hard into the street. Was twelve at the time and my sis about ten. Later on she told me she was too surprised at what happened with my car door flying open and that's why she didn't say anything to our parents about me falling out of the car.

"Took someone honking their horn and pointing behind them for Dad to look in his side view mirror and see me. No broken bones but I was scraped up enough he carried me into a convenience store, bought a bottle of peroxide and some cotton balls and was cleaning one of the scrapes on a knee when it felt like it was on fire…Hell fire! And I screamed.

" Dad didn't scold me for doing it so loud. Just asked if the state of Mississippi was spelled the same way as the river to try to get my mind off the pain. It worked so I didn't scream again, but I'll never forget how bad the peroxide burned and that's how come I don't like it used to clean any kind of wound."

#####

In the morning and while Hutch and Starsky were eating breakfast, "So did you make it to the Norwegian Festival?"

"Yeah. Had a good time too. Even got to play Gjemsel, though when it was my turn to play Basse my dad and mom said I was too scraped up to do it and made me watch."

"What's Basse?"

"A game with five or six players who compete in bag ball called a basse out of their designated region. They do so by knocking it out with any part of their body except their hands, while also trying to hit it into another player's area. Each time it lands in their area they receive a negative point. Once a player reaches a certain number of points they're eliminated. When only two players remain, a sudden death round is played. The first person to hit the basse into their opponent's area is the winner."

Ten days later and at Hutch's and 'not' Van's and his apartment-

He had just stepped out of the shower when he noticed that he had developed a blister on every one of the puncture wounds on his back. Some of the blisters were close to his right arm and that armpit's lymph nodes were swollen and tender. He was fatigued and had a low-grade fever above 98.6 F but below 100.4 F. Either way, it didn't stop him from going into work that day.

A few days later he still had the wounds with the blisters, the swollen and tender lymph nodes and a low-grade fever. But he also had a headache, backache, a sore throat, joint pain, the chills bad enough he was shivering, and felt miserable.

Taking more extra-strength aspirin, drinking more orange juice, sucking on throat lozenges, and lying in bed underneath blankets with all his clothes on and even with the summer heat outside above 90 degrees Fahrenheit wasn't making him feel any better and life stunk!

This morning he'd called into work and told his captain he was sick and Captain Reynolds had no trouble believing him, it was around 7 at night when Starsky came bounding into Hutch's bedroom.

"En, to, tre, fire, fem, seks. That's counting to six in Norwegian!"

"Very good Starsk. You even pronounced to 'toe', tre 'tray' fire 'fee-reh' and seks 'sex'. Now go away with that bag of groceries. I'm not hungry."

Starsky left the bedroom but returned ten minutes later, "Here's some vegetable soup for you Blondie."

"I told you I'm not hungry,"

"You've gotta eat something!"

"No, I don't. Now leave me alone."

"How about half of the bowl?"

"One day of eating isn't going to kill me."

"Five spoonsfuls of soup?"

"No. Can't you see I feel awful?" Then Hutch groaned, driving his point across that he really did feel terrible.

"I'm going to watch TV and spend the night on your couch. Try to get some sleep," Starsky replied.

Callie climbed on the bed with Hutch and made herself comfortable, her purring wasn't doing anything to make him get some zzzzs, but it did make him miss Vanessa and he had given her the cat four months ago for her birthday. He emotionally deflated, tears fell onto his pillow with a yellow pillowcase the same color as a cheery morning sun.

####

The morning sun shining through one of the windows woke Starsky up. He got off the couch and went to check on Hutch.

"Feel horrible, hot, sick," Hutch told him in a raspy voice filled with pain. He wrapped his hands around his throat. "Hurts to swallow. Muscles in my arms and legs hurt. Gotta runny nose," and then he coughed. "Plus I still have a headache, backache, joint pain, the blisters on my back, and ya da ya da ya da."

"That does it! I'm taking you to the ER and don't argue with me about it this time or else I'm calling my Ma and ratting you out to her." Starsky said firmly.

Hutch loved Starsky's mom and she loved him, but because Hutch didn't want to have to listen to Starsky's mom giving him a talk about why he should go to the ER he didn't argue anymore to Starsky about it.

###

In the ER waiting room, "Ken Hutchinson, registration booth four." Came over the speakers mounted on the wall.

Hutch got up from his seat and turned quickly to the right, "Whoa there, tiger! The booth, it's that way!" Starsky said, tugging his friend's left shirt sleeve and steering him in the right direction.

"That didn't take long at all," he commented when Hutch returned to the waiting room and sat back down.

Some moans and groans along with going through two whole boxes of tissues blowing his runny nose and letting Starsky massage his back to try-the keyword 'try'-to relieve the backache and whatever else that was killing him— a female wearing a white nurse's dress and a name tag that said 'Darcy' came out into the room and looked at the crowd of people.

"Is there a Ken Hutchinson out here?"

"Yes," Hutch said and got up from his seat.

"Can I come with you?" and Starsky figured that Hutch's lack of a reply meant, "Whatever floats your boat" so Starsky accompanied him to where they were going next.

Darcy opened the entrance door to the exam and treatment room area and was leading them down the hall to room 22 when Hutch suddenly stopped walking, leaning heavily over. One hand placed on his knee, the other on his stomach, Starsky quickly wrapped an arm around the blond's shoulders. He didn't have the chance to ask what was wrong before Hutch panted, "Feel like I'm gonna throw up."

"Sit him down in that chair," Darcy instructed Starsky. "I'll be right back with an emesis…a vomit bag."

While they were waiting for her to return, "I'm gonna upchuck all over the floor and in front of everyone here in the hallway. How cool is that?" Hutch was so humiliated then opened his mouth to puke.

"Oh no you don't. Take breaths. Big breaths" Then- You're doing good. That a boy," Starsky coached him. The urge to vomit passed, but Hutch was still pale and sweating.

When Darcy returned, she helped Starsky stand Hutch up from his chair and helped him walk to room 22.

She'd just pulled the curtain closed where other patients couldn't see Hutch when he grabbed the vomit bag out of Darcy's other hand. Making gagging noises into the bag, white foam then flowed out of his mouth, followed by thick green bile.

What seemed to Hutch to be an eternity later he finally stopped barfing his brains out, when she waved her hand toward a door with a restroom sign on it. "I need you to go into it and urinate into one of those plastic cups and screw the lid on tight. You'd be surprised at how many people don't."

Hutch was almost to the restroom door when he muttered, "Dizzy."

Darcy looked at Starsky and quickly said, "Curly you better go on into the john with him."

Inside the john and pulling down his pants and underwear and squatting over the toilet seat, Hutch notified Starsky that, "Starsk. Turn around. I can't pee with you looking."

Starsky did as he was asked. He hid a smile when he heard Hutch exclaim, "Oh how gross! Got more pee on my hands than in the urine sample cup!"

###

After Hutch washed his hands with soap and warm water, there was a knock on the door. Starsky opened it a crack. "He needs to take off all his clothes except for his socks and underwear and put on this gown." That was Darcy again.

"You heard her," Starsky said in response to Hutch griping that taking off 'just' his shirt and leaving all the rest of his clothes on should be good enough and didn't see the reason why he had to get most of the way undressed.

###

When Starsky and Hutch walked out of the restroom Darcy pointed at Hutch. "Sit here please," as she patted the part of the exam table where she wanted him to park his butt.

Reaching into one of her uniform dress pockets and she pulled out a thermometer and placed it under his tongue, "Sir. I need you to close your mouth."

"Sorry. Must've forgotten. I'm sick," he explained, covering his mouth with his forearm as he coughed and coughed and then coughed some more.

She rubbed his back, "Are you okay now?" He nodded his head that he was. The thermometer reinserted under his tongue, this time he did close his mouth and without having to be told to.

Wasn't but about five seconds later that he yanked out the thermometer, "Yeck! This thing tastes horrible." Hutch exclaimed.

"Well I can promise you it hasn't been inside anyone's anus so you must be tasting the bile from when you threw up. Now please. Let's get your temperature taken." She put the thermometer back in his mouth and timed it by looking at her watch. When she took out the thermometer and looked at it, she frowned. "Gotta a hundred and four temperature dear. That's why your face is so red."

"I'm hot too," he complained, fanning himself with his hands, attempting to cool himself down. "Isn't working at cooling me," he muttered. Then looked in a mirror and saw his still red face and his glassy eyes caused by the fever.

Darcy opened up a cabinet door and took out a small electric fan, "Here Curly. Plug this in."

"Aye Aye, Capt'n" Starsky saluted her then held the fan in his hands so that it blew directly on his partner.

"Stretch out your arm and hold it here by your heart." She instructed Hutch. Wrapping a blood pressure cuff around his upper arm she pressed the stethoscope's bell over the brachial artery. Releasing the air out some she pumped the bulb again, then released, pumped it again, finding herself having to repeat doing that, squeezing his arm with the cuff tighter and tighter and tighter.

He felt the throbbing pain in his whole arm and the increasing tingling sensation going on in his hand, "What is that cuff? Some kind of boa constrictor!?"

"Shhh. Don't talk. Having to squeeze your arm like that means your blood pressure's too high. I should have the exact reading soon."…"180 over 100. Not good. Let's move on to drawing some blood from you."

She'd already taken seven vials of the dark red stuff out of him…

"What's your last name 'Vampire'!?" he snapped. Then, "Sorry! It's just that I've never been so sick in my life before. Still isn't any excuse for jumping your case about drawing my blood."

When Darcy said, "By the way, my last name really is Vampire, and you're forgiven handsome. Just don't tell my co-workers I called you that. Now about your other symptoms, tell me all about them and I'll write them down for the doc to take a look at."

"Well, I also have a killer headache. Feels like someone's taking a sledgehammer and pounding iron spikes into it. Back hurts and hand me that box of tissues over there, please. Thank you." He blew his nose with a huge handful of them. "Sore throat and it hurts to swallow. All kinds of muscle aches and joint pain…"

"I bet even the bones in your toes and fingers feel like they're broken. Am I right Blintz?" Starsky asked.

The blond's pinched face gave Starsky the answer.

"You poor dear." Darcy patted Hutch's leg. "Wait. Did you just call him Blintz?"

"Yeah. So?"

"But a blintz is a thin rolled pancake filled with cheese or fruit and then fried or baked."

"Yep! And my name is Starsky, but he sometimes calls me a turkey and I'm not that, am I?"

"No. Of course you're not."

Hutch thought it was time he was stoic and not butt into their continued conversation and complain about the rest of his health problems, and he was doing a good job of not doing it too. That was until he stated he had pressure in his chest.

His face draining of all color he shot like a rocket off the exam table and stood by the sink. Starsky was there in a flash putting his left arm around his waist to keep Hutch from falling on the floor. The slightly shorter man used his right hand to bathe the blond's sweaty forehead with some wet paper towels. Then the next thing Hutch knew the doctor came in and after doing the physical exam he gave Hutch a shot that also hurt.

Finally, after running several tests and draining the swollen lymph gland under his right arm, the doctor diagnosed Hutch with Cat Scratch Fever. He explained that the Bartonella henselae bacteria lives in a cat's saliva and is transmitted to humans through a bite or a scratch. Somehow Callie had been bit by a flea as that is how cats got the bacteria in the first place.

The doctor further explained that in most cases Cat Scratch Fever is not a serious disease and seldom needed medical intervention. Hutch was one of those rare cases that did. Hutch was given a shot of an antibiotic that hurt some and a salve to put on his back. The doctor assured him that he should be fine in a couple of weeks.

After he was released from the ER and Starsky drove him home, he immediately called his vet who told him to bring Callie in for treatment and her regular shots.

When some days went by and Hutch was feeling better, he homemade Callie some cat toys that beat anything that could be bought at the store.

The End


End file.
